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This will be my last post of the year. Thank you all for following me this year as we did our weekly tips. I am going to take some downtime to spend with my family. If you are Catholic you know we are in the liturgical season of Advent. Advent is a time of preparation and waiting for the birth of our lord. I hope you receive many blessings during this joyous season. Sally and I are also celebrating our own personal Advent. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new grandson. Please keep all of us in your prayers!

If you get a break from all of the season’s activities, this week will be a great time to be in the garden. The weather is supposed to remain outstanding until the 28th.

Grandson number 1 came for a visit last week. Can’t wait to meet grandson number 2 this month! Sorry for all of the maroon but one of his granddads went to the other place so we take every opportunity to makes sure he makes the right decision 16 years from now!!!

VEGETABLES/FRUITS

Plant Herbs – December is a great time to plant perennial herbs like rosemary, lavender, oregano and thyme. You can also plant from seed or transplant cilantro, parsley and dill

Plant peas – My grandmother swore you should plant English peas on the last day of the year. This will ensure a nice fresh harvest for Easter

I hope you have been able to get outside and take advantage of this unseasonably gorgeous weather. Last Saturday, Sally and I took a little horticultural get away to our state’s capital. We had a lovely visit with co-blogger Patty Leander. We toured her amazing garden (she is growing peanuts!) and the extremely well done garden of long-time reader Harry Cabluck. We also took time to visit the new “Lucy and Ian Family Garden” at the Ladybird Johnson Wildlife Center. If you have never been to the Wildflower Center you really need to go. It has always been an awesome place for adult gardeners, landscapers and nature lovers. Now, with the addition of the family garden, the wildflower center is the perfect weekend trip for the entire family.

There has never been a better time to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. The recent addition of the Lucy and Ian Family Garden ensures your kids or grandkids will enjoy the trip as much as you do.

VEGETABLES/FRUITS

Plant Onions – Last weekend I planted my onions (read how I do it here). I ordered my onions from Dixondale Farms. Dixondale has been growing onion sets in Texas for almost 100 years. Their website is a great resource for onion growers. Not only can you order you plants, you can find recommendations on how to grow them, when to plant them and which varieties to use for your area.

Plant more greens – It is still possible to plant arugula, collards, mustards, lettuce and spinach. In fact, I just planted a container with red lettuce, arugula and spinach last weekend. I love growing greens in containers and keeping them close to the back door. This way my wife and I have ready access to fresh and fabulous salads all weekend

Plant strawberries – December is a great time to plant strawberries. Plant them in full sun and in soil that drains well.

Get row cover ready– Believe it or not, it really is going to freeze sometime soon. Get ready by digging out your row cover and getting moved to your garden.

Spray fruit trees with dormant oil – Dormant oils smother scale insects and other sucking insects that plague peaches, plums, pears and apricots (and crepe myrtles too) in the spring. Most of these are refined petroleum products but you can find dormant oils that come from plants oils. Organic dormant oils should carry the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) seal.

Last year I had cauliflower, shallots and spinach sharing space in my potager garden. You can still plant spinach in your Zone 8 and 9 gardens.

ORNAMENTALS

Plant flower bulbs – My 16 month old grandson is visiting. This afternoon I am going to get him to help me plant 50 daffodil bulbs. If you want spring blooms of narcissus, daffodils, jonquils or luecojum you need to plant them now.

Flowers – After Roger and I finish planting our daffodils we are going to plant larkspur. I put out larkspur seeds in a broadcast manner. You can also plant poppies in the same way. December is also a great time to plant dianthus, pansy and violas from transplants

December is a great time to plant pansy and violas (Johnny Jump-Ups) from transplant

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According to the forecast this will be a cold and wet weekend in the Zone 9 garden. However, if they are wrong, here are some of the things you can work on:

Peaches, plums and redbuds are beginning to show color.

Vegetables

If you have not already prepared your beds by tilling in lots of compost, you need to do it soon. The nutrients in compost are not readily available. Compost needs time for the microbes and insects in the soil to break it down. After tilling I highly recommend adding lots of mulch to keep down the weeds. I use spoiled hay in my garden because it is easy for me to get. Feel free to use leaves, grass clippings or any other natural product that you have access to.

Since there is a good chance for rain this weekend I am going to do some indoor gardening. It is time for me to up pot my tomato transplants. I started my seeds in coir pellets back in January. They are now big enough to be moved into the solo drink cups that I use for pots. I put the coir pellets into the cup and cover the entire stem of the young transplants. Since tomatoes grow roots along their entire stem, planting deep and covering the stem will encourage the little plant to make lots of roots that will help grow a big healthy plant.

Onions are beginning to take off. Keep down the weeds and apply 6 cups of organic fertilizer like Lady Bug All Purpose Fertilizer (8-2-4) per 25 square feet of plantings once a month.

There is still time to plant turnips, rutabagas and beets from seed.

Ornamentals

Poppies and Larkspur are very noticeable right now. Be careful not to pull them when weeding this week.

Lawns

Henbit and clover are sprouting all over my yard. Both are nearly impossible to control with organic methods. Weed eat them regularly to keep them from flowering and setting seed. If you are not organic you can treat the clover with Trimec starting next month. Trimec will kill clover and not damage St. Augustine.

Trees and Shrubs

If you have black, sooty looking limbs on your crepe myrtles there is a very good chance that you have a scale infestation. Now is a great time to “cleanse” yourself of the problem. Mix up a bucket of soapy water and use a soft brush to scrub any remaining “honey dew” from the tree. This cleansing will also remove any scales or scale eggs that are already in place. You can also spray dormant oil at this time. If you live in north or east Texas be aware that there is a new scale infecting crepe myrtles in your part of the state. Oils are not effective against this new pest. To learn more about controlling this pest click here for a great article from the Aggie entomologists at Insects in the City.

This past weekend I planted my potatoes. While planting I got a very pleasant surprise – more potatoes! For the past two years I have wanted to try fall potatoes. However, no one sells seed potatoes in the fall. I had my best ever potato crop in the spring so this September I took my left overs and planted them. We had a very mild winter. I covered the potatoes once in December and once in January for light frosts. Then I did not get them covered for the last freeze in January. I thought the freeze ended my experiment. I cut off the frozen vines and forgot about them. That’s why I was so surprised this Sunday. As I dug my trenches for my new potatoes, my fall potatoes were literally turning up all over the place. I harvested over 20 lbs! So, it looks like you definitely can grow fall potatoes in the Zone 9 Garden. Below are more things to consider doing this weekend.

For a complete list of the vegetables you can plant now please check out the planting guide in the sidebar. If you are not sure what particular vegetable varieties to plant check out Patty Leander’s variety list in the sidebar. This is a great tool for new gardeners or for those of us who like to try different things. Also be sure to look at her seed sources. March 15 is go date for most of the veggies we like to grow in the Zone 9 spring garden. If you don’t hurry it will soon be too late to order your seeds.

Valentine’s Day is a great time to prune your roses.

Ornamentals

There are two times to prune roses – Labor Day and Valentine’s Day. This weekend reduce the size of your hybrid roses by up to one half. Also remove any dead wood. It is also a great time to open up the center of the bush. Most shrub roses will look beautiful if you have six to eight healthy, upright canes. Remove all suckers that are smaller than a pencil and top foliage by cutting branches at a 45 degree angle above a bud. Antique roses do not need as much pruning. Reduce them by no more than a third, get rid of all dead wood and open up the centers. DO NOT prune spring blooming climbers until after their first bloom.

Lawns

It is still too early to apply commercial fertilizers to your lawn. However it is a great time to aerate and add compost. When fertilizing your lawn with compost, mow closely and then spread a half to one inch of compost over the lawn. Rake it into the grass and water well. Do not mow again for a least a week. You can fertilize your lawn with compost 2,3 or 4 times a year. You really can’t add too much. Plus compost will often contain macro nutrients and trace elements that are missing from commercial fertilizers.

Buds on my redbud trees mean that all trees will soon be breaking dormancy. Spray horticultural oils now for insect control later.

Trees and Shrubs

My redbud is beginning to bud out. That is the first sign that trees are coming out of dormancy. If you want to plant any fruit trees, bare root or containerized, do it soon. The weather conditions that we have right now are perfect for allowing them to rapidly start producing the roots that will “establish” them in your landscape.

While your crepe myrtles are still bare, spray them with horticultural oil (also known as dormant oils) to mites and scale insects. Horticultural, or dormant, oils are generally refined petroleum products. They are great at controlling several pests in shrubs and fruit trees. However, they are not organic. Look for the organic equivalent that is made from cotton seed oil. Another organic, Neem oil, shows some promise as a dormant oil and research is currently being done on its effectiveness. Do not spray dormant oils after buds have broken on your trees and shrubs.

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Quotable

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have always had, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden." –Abraham Cowley, “The Garden” (1666)